Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-11-12
A DEFENSE OF LAWYERS.
Henry Edgerton's Reply to Attacks on
the Profession.
[San Francisco Bulletin.

One of the longest and most finished
speeches ever delivered by the late Henry
Edgerton was on the subject of corpora
tions delivered during a discussion of the
railroad question in the Constitutional
Convention of 1879. None of the bio
graphies of the dead man have mentioned
his connection with that remarkable body.
The Convention was composed of two par.
ties, non-Partisans and Workingmer.
After organization it divided into three fac
tions-Conservatives, Moderate Radicals
and Radicals. The first faction was led by
the lawyers, of whom Edgerton was one /;
the second was composed of a few anti
corporation men and the farmers and me-
chanics, and the last was made up of the
workingmen.
For some time before the great corpora
ton debate referred to began, the influence
of the lawyers in the body had departed !;
not only that, but it had become the fashion
to sneer at them, ridicule their words of
caution, and vote down every constitutional
principle they advocated.
This preliminary statement is made to
explain the quotation which follows. At
the close of his speech on corporations,
which occupied an afternoon, Edgerton re-
terred to the prevailing fashion of de-
nouncing the leaders of the Conservatives
as corporation lawyers" and delivered
the following defense of that profession.
1t attracted some public attention at the
time, and is worth quoting:
Mr.. Chairman, | confess that l have
addressed this Convention not without
some misgivings. am lawyer and have
been legislator, two employments that
seem to have come under the ban of this
House. l have realizing and saddened
sense that the profession to which | be-
long Goes not enjoy the confidence, the
respect, the homage of the people, in that
this the people are themselves to blame.
From what cannot but regard as most
mistaken notion, they have done every
thing in their power for the last forty years
to populariZe and democratize that pro-
fession. And its better representatives
have not made an effort during that
period to close up its ranks against charlie
tans and pretenders that has not been
thwarted by the people. For example, a
provision was placed in the codes which
became the law in 1873, prohibiting any
person from practicing in any Court of
record in this State who had not been adj
nlitted to the Supreme Court. 1t was q
saiutary provision and security to the citi-
zen. But at the next session of the Legis-
lature bill was introduced to repeal it,
and though the lawyers made every effort
to preserve it. the farmers and mechanics
in that body opposed it and it was re-
pealed.
. But, sir, granting all that now may be
said to the disadvantage of that profession,
concede, if you please that, as it is alleged
it is somewhat conservative, somewhat
aristocratic in its tendencies. as l look over
this body and realize how large and pre-
dominating is the democratic element in
lxs,Nf Il g.
stance that there are a good number of
lawyers here, and among them the best in
the State-some indeed, who rank with
the best in any State. And do not think
the excellence of the work of this body will
be at all impaired if very wide scope is
given to the influence of the lawyers in it.
lone of the profoundest political phil
osophers and very close observer of our
American institutions, in his great work
entitled Democracy in America wrote
this of my profession The profession of
the law is the only aristocratic element
which can be amalgamated without yio-
lence to that natural element of democracy,
and which can be advantageously and per-
manentiy combined in it. ] am not unac-
quainted with the defects which are inner
ent in that body of men, but without this
admixture of lawyer-like sobriety with the
democratic principle, / question whether
democratic institutions can long be main
tanned, and l cannot believe that republic
could subsist at the present time if the in
fluence of lawyers in public business did
not increase in proportion to the power of
the people,
Sir, it was the skill and wisdom of law
yers that laid the foundation and reared
the superstructure of that benign Govern
ment under which we sit in this hail. 1t
was an immortal company of lawyers
whose craftsmanship, supported by the
deathless ralor of its heroic armies, kept
that Government on its foundation in the
most tremendous shock of war the universe
has ever felt. 1t was lawyer who at the
call of his country. in the hour of its direst
peril, left the walks of his profession and
became the greatest organizer of war the
world has ever seen. But, sir, l need not
stand here TO call the roll of its heroes. In
the Senate, upon the bench, at the bar, in
the camp, in the stricken line of battle, al
ways and everywhere when civilization and
the rights of mankind have been assailed,
that profession has been In the vanguard OF
their defenders. The bones OF its martyrs
are at the base of every great monument
which marks the progress of the race, and
there is not legal security nor O constitg-